Based on Ian McEwan’s (Atonement) novella by the same name, director Dominic Cooke proves that just because you have flint and tinder doesn’t always mean that you can make fire with his memorable and poignant, yet sometimes underwhelming and often slow On Chesil Beach. Not only did Cooke have McEwan’s novel to work with, but the author wrote the screenplay himself. Now I’m not a huge fan of comparing the book to the movie in my reviews (most of the time, as in the case of this one, it’s because I haven’t read the book), but I have read a couple of reviews that say that the movie did not do the book justice, that the final scenes of the movie weren’t even in the book, and that even what McEwan’s main novel points were changed or not flushed out. But since I actually liked the movie ass did most critics and other moviegoers (68% and 94% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes), I’m willing to forget the omissions specifically mentioned in the unfavorable reviews on both Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper’s websites. Nevertheless, I felt a very relatable component of this 1962 English set movie to 2018. The relatable component could be applicable in many specific situations in physically romantic relationships between two people.

In addition to having a great piece of literature to work with, Cooke had the beautiful cinematography of Sean Bobbitt. But these two tools were not even the two best that he had at his disposal. With apologies to the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Shailene Woodley, Emma Stone, Natalie Portman, and Michelle Williams, he had arguably the actress in Hollywood playing his lead in Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird, Brooklyn). Ronan is starting to remind me of a young Kate Winslett. I hope that she can resist the temptation of a nice payday to stay away from committing herself to a franchise series like so many others have done, though I would not fault her if she did. Unfortunately, as great as she was in On Chesil Beach, this will not be the movie that earns her a Best Lead Actress Oscar nomination for the third time in four years. However, the upcoming Mary, Queen of Scots, could. Equally impressive is the relative newcomer (Billy Howle – The Witness for the Prosecution, The Seagull) who matches and, at times, outperforms Ronan.

I frequently mention in my reviews how I’m a huge fan of movies that effectively tell the current story through a series of flashbacks. When this is done effectively, these are some of my favorite types of movies to watch. Cooke definitely went with this technique for the first 50-60% of this movie, and it was absolutely maddening to watch at times. The backstories are fantastic. But they crushed the present. We would get a flashback, return to the present day for a minute maybe, and then return to a flashback. While the flashbacks were important, there were too many of them, or they could have been combined. But we literally got 15-20 scenes in the present day in the first half of the movie just to go to a flashback of either Florence (Ronan), Edward (Howle), or the progression of their relationship, which honestly felt like one of love. This is what made the wedding night so uncomfortable and uncharacteristically uncomfortable to watch. To sum up the problem on the wedding night of Florence and Edward, they have never been intimate before. Nor had they ever talked about sexual intimacy. They were very much in love…but it was a different kind of love (maybe), or it became a different kind of love (definitely) on their wedding night. They knew each other’s family’s inside and out. Hers is much better off from a socio-economic standpoint, while his father is a headmaster at a school, and his mother suffers from brain trauma after an incident shown in the movie. She spends her days creating art and is more disconnected from the world than she is connected to it.

In any case, the blossoming of their relationship is actually quite nice, and I don’t know if that was an effective technique of Cooke or not based on what plays out later. Florence is very much smitten with Edward. That is for certain. Their courtship is what, I guess, you would expect from 1962 England? I never lived in England, nor was I even born in the 1960s. Both men and women were very proper in this movie. It felt like the relationship you wish your kids would develop if you were a parent? They didn’t experiment with each other, and we learn that they did not even really talk about it. We see more of her coming to terms with her understanding of sexuality of flashbacks where she is reading how-to manuals. And she doesn’t exactly seem impressed with what she is reading. But we don’t know what this means.

Back to their wedding night as they move from a very early dinner to the bed, and there are just all kinds of awkwardness. It is the EXACT opposite of how anyone would want it to be the first time they connect sexually with a partner. I’ll get into spoilers in a minute, but this was just all kinds of awkwardness. Coupled with the fact that the flashbacks were just occurring too often and were too long and we had an extended portion of the movie where we just wanted to see what happened. And I can understand sexual awkwardness. I can understand it firsthand, but even if I could not, it’s not hard to envision, even when two people might be sexually compatible. Sometimes there are other influences (medication, alcohol, thoughts in our head, sexual dysfunction, or a host of other things that might make the initial first time with the partner worse than it might be in future times. However, at one point, Florence did ask Edward how many women he had been with before. Aside from the uncomfortable exchange between them, this just doesn’t seem like a question you would ask on your wedding night. It seems like you either have that conversation somewhere early or in the middle of the relationship, or you don’t have that conversation at all. But, again, it just felt like Florence was trying to delay the inevitable.

***Spoilers***

Boy, how our lives can change in a fraction of a second for any number of reasons. It’s scary, and it’s sad. And sometimes it really sucks. I’ve always had a difficult time accepting that my life could change drastically depending on the action(s) of another. For a long time in my life, I both wanted and needed that security. And that security will never be there in anything other than your faith. I still have a difficult time recovering from the emotional wounds inflicted by others. I mean, it takes me forever to recover sometimes, and often I do feel like I experience the colors of life in much more profound ways than most people, or at least the people that I know. Of course, I don’t know how everyone reacts to every situation, and you aren’t privy to what happens behind closed doors. But I’ve had people say or do things to me that have definitely changed, maybe not the trajectory of my life, but certainly how I view, perceive, or interpret things. I have become a much more guarded and distrusting person because of things that others have done to me…actions or words that I would never have envisioned I’d ever experience or hear.

However, what Edward experiences take the cake. After he does get his pants off, it doesn’t take long for him to ejaculate. And Florence is completely turned off by it. As I mentioned, I hate comparing the movie to the book (especially when I have not even read the book), BUT I have read in other reviews that we are much more aware of Florence’s repulsion to sex. When she feels him, Florence’s mind goes to other (i.e., bad) places, and we are introduced to some things that MAY have happened to her that would have made her averse to sex. After he finishes, she is embarrassed and grossed out. She flees the hotel in favor of the beautiful Chesil Beach. And your heart drops for both of them. For all the faults that some have found with this movie, the acting glues those seams together. The dynamic between Ronan and Howle is magnetic. And I’m uncertain if it’s because I’m a guy that I feel more for Edward than I do for Florence, but, man, did he get hosed. Here is on his dream night, and his wife of a few hours is telling him that she isn’t interested in having sex and that it would be perfectly okay if he slept with other women if he still came home to her. They could live their lives in secrecy…that they would live as loving roommates and no one would have to be the wiser. This obviously destroys Edward, and it becomes too much for him to take. I cannot imagine that I would not have acted the same way that he did. He turns from her, and that’s the last of their marriage. They do not see each other again until the film’s (unneeded) final scene.

Edward becomes a different person, and he begins living a life he never imagined, even if, in some ways, it is better. We see him struggle in the present day, and then we get a scene about 15 years in the future and another one about 40 years in the future. Apparently, these scenes were not in the novel. And they aren’t great. What I did appreciate was that the pacing did increase, and we were able to see how both Florence and Edward (but mostly Edward) changed because of the events of that night. It truly is heartbreaking, but not to the point where you’re likely to be affected as an audience member.

***End of Spoilers***

I do love movies that focus on broken relationships, so this film was right up my alley. With that said, the first half of this film was constructed poorly, in my opinion, and the last couple of scenes were designed to make us feel something other than maybe what we could have felt on our own. Maybe we wanted to draw our own conclusions that the book left us with rather than these contrived scenes. I don’t know. It didn’t make or break this movie personally, but I could see how it could for others. The acting was great, and there was just something about how this movie played out that felt real to me. I could feel for Edward certainly. Even more, I’m glad that I wasn’t Edward, nor do I have to live a version of him.

Movie buffs…check it out…maybe not in the theatre, but it’s original enough to give a chance.

Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 9.5/10
Acting 9.5/10
Screenplay 7.5/10
Directing 7/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 9/10
Hook and Reel 8.5/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
86.5%